Down with Love
by JulesDPM
Summary: Virgil just wants a love life.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: Many t__hanks to Dawn for the beta._

Down with Love

Grace had been said and the Tracy family were just starting dinner, passing dishes and chatting. Tin Tin was also present, with her father, Kyrano, hovering nearby, serving the large group.

"So where did you disappear to then today, Virgil?" asked Gordon. "I was looking for you to help with that work on Four."

"I popped over to the mainland for a few hours."

"Oh right. For anything interesting?"

"I just needed to…er…go to a specialist art shop."

"You're joking?" Gordon laughed, "Surely you've got more than enough paint?"

Their conversation had started to interest the others and, at Gordon's chortle, Virgil found that everyone was looking in his direction which did not please him.

"I needed different art pencils and paper," he replied. "I'm thinking of taking up….life drawing." He said this deadpan in a way that always made Scott inwardly laugh when he knew that Virgil was teasing but no-one else had spotted it yet.

"And which one of us are you going to draw in the nude, exactly?" enquired Gordon, in a prim tone of voice.

Virgil's eyes scanned around the table. Why wind up one person when you could wind up two? His gaze settled on Tin Tin and he smiled.

"In your dreams, Virgil Tracy!" stated Tin Tin with conviction.

"No way, you are NOT painting Tin Tin naked!" said Alan simultaneously.

"Calm down, he's not serious," said Scott.

Virgil laughed. "Tin Tin, it would be impossible for me even to begin to do justice to your beauty so I wouldn't dream of trying.

Tin Tin smiled at the compliment but Alan was still scowling at Virgil.

"Alright boys, that's enough," interjected Jeff. "Now, how's that work on Thunderbird 4 going, Gordon?"

TBTBTBTB

"So where _did _you go on the mainland?" Scott asked this of Virgil as the two of them were playing pool alone in the games room after dinner. Virgil raised his eyebrows enquiringly at his brother before taking his shot. "Well, you didn't buy paper and pencils," continued Scott, "or a least you weren't carrying anything back from the hangar earlier."

"For Pete's sake, has Lady Penelope been giving you spying tips?" Virgil missed a pot.

"I'm just observant," replied Scott.

Virgil watched Scott pot a ball and frowned. Scott beat him at pool far too often for his liking. Scott potted another and then missed a third. Virgil grinned but then his grin faded as he saw that Scott was still looking at him, waiting for an answer.

"I just had a few hours' time out, okay? I cleared it with Dad first."

Scott's eyes narrowed. "Being the mystery man, eh? Okay, okay, it's none of my business, I know."

Virgil bent over the pool table and managed to pot the black with his next shot. As there were still several of his colours left on the table he lost the game. He swore and gave Scott an evil look.

"Play again?" Scott asked sweetly.

"Only if you shut up," Virgil replied and Scott reset the table in silence.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"For God's sake, why, Virgil?" Sophia was shouting now. "I just don't understand!"

Virgil had known that this wasn't going to go well but he had underestimated just how bad it was going to be by some way. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"I told you. Because I just can't give you what you want."

"But you ARE giving me what I want: love, friendship, great sex, but without being too clingy. Nothing's changed."

"Yes, it has. You want to spend time with me at the Island and it's just not possible."

"Only because I love you, that's all." Tears were starting to spill from Sophia's eyes again. "I know you have to stay on the Island a lot because of that secret government work or whatever your Dad's involved in but when I have a few weeks off from work why can't I stay with you? I'd like to get to know your family and I wouldn't go into any rooms that I mustn't."

"It's a bit more complicated than that."

"How can it be? Why are you dumping me just because I want to spend more time with you?"

Virgil sighed. "We weren't going down this road, remember? No strings, that's what we said. Look, this isn't achieving anything. I think I'd better go." He turned and headed for the door. His hand was just on the door handle when Sophia ran across the room and grabbed him. She could see she was fast losing the battle and the tears weren't impressing Virgil. She tried a new tack.

"Virgil, we're good together…." She put her hand to his shoulders and kissed him, her body pushing his against the door. Virgil knew he shouldn't respond but he couldn't resist one last kiss. His arms slipped around her waist and he pulled her closer, kissing her strongly. Then, with huge reluctance, he moved his head away from hers and started to push her away. Tears began to run down Sophia's face for a third time.

"You love me," she stated firmly. "You might not say so but I know you do."

Virgil sighed. "Of course I love you. What's not to love? But you've heard that expression: if you love someone, let them go. That's what I'm doing." He released Sophia and opened the door.

"But I don't understand!"

Virgil turned and walked out of the apartment. As he walked to the elevator the words "You bastard!" echoed after him down the hallway.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_Two months later_

Breakfast on Tracy Island was not as formal as dinner and everyone wandered in and out of the kitchen when they wanted to. That morning, Scott was eating a raisin bagel while pretending to read a hardware manual but actually his eyes were fixed on Virgil who was across the table from him, his head bent low over a bowl of cereal. This was not unusual as Virgil was not a morning person but the fact that his hair was almost touching the side of the bowl was strange even for him.

Jeff joined them, placing a healthy breakfast of fresh fruit, yoghurt and granola on the table.

"Father," said Scott, "Virgil and I are going over to the desalination plant after breakfast to do the monthly check, okay?"

At the sound of his name, Virgil raised his head slightly and looked at Scott in surprise. He certainly hadn't remembered any conversation with Scott about that but his big brother's blue eyes had a determination about them so he decided not to argue and continued to shovel cereal into his mouth.

"I thought it was Alan's turn?" replied Jeff.

"Yeah, but he's really busy with that software upgrade for Five so we said we'd do it."

"Okay, that's fine," said Jeff, lifting his spoon.

Half an hour later Scott and Virgil were heading across the Island, using a mixture of hover bikes and walking to get to the other side where the desalination plant was. Another of Brains's brilliant technical masterpieces, the small plant ensured fresh, clean drinking water from the surrounding ocean. Despite the remote control panel and alarms in Brains's lab that warned him of any problems, there was still a rota in place to physically check the equipment.

As the two brothers walked up to the plant Scott decided to open the conversation he wanted to have with Virgil. "So, how are things going?" he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Virgil misunderstood him on purpose. "Things are going great with the plant. Can't see any problems from here but we ought to check around the back."

"I meant, how are things going with you?" said Scott evenly.

"Fine," came the short reply as Virgil started to pull back some vegetation from the side of a water silo.

"Only the last few weeks you've not been…"

"Been what?"

"You seem a little unhappy."

"Really?"

Scott huffed in irritation. "Yes, Virgil, really. Do you want to talk about it?"

Virgil's reply involved attacking a green plant and pulling it out by its roots with some force. Scott gave a hand. "Alright, I know you don't but you're wallowing in something and not coming out of it and it's pissing me off. I want to help."

The swear word from Scott made Virgil stand up and look at his brother. Scott could swear in a way that only military men knew how but he very rarely directed it at Virgil.

"You can't help," he said, trying to sound less argumentative, "But I appreciate the thought. Let's see how that mend on the pipe around the side is doing."

They walked further on and Scott tried again. "Before that you were really cheerful. You had such a twinkle in your eye I thought you might be dating someone and then I was worried she'd dumped you or something or…." He trailed off.

Virgil was leaning over the pipe. He examined it for a moment and then stood back up and looked Scott straight in the eye. "Actually, _I_ dumped _her_. Satisfied now? There is nothing you can do, it's over. The patch up is working well. Alan can take another look next month but I think it's going to hold."

"I'm sorry. About the girl, I mean."

"Thanks. Have you got the PDA? We need to enter the data in a minute."

Scott followed Virgil further around the plant, pulling a small device from his pocket. "No, I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. You dump a girl, it's bad for a couple of weeks and then you move on. Why haven't you moved on?"

"It's a long story and, for your information, I have moved on. Well, Sophia got over me pretty quickly, let's put it like that."

"But you'd like to get back together with this Sophia?"

Virgil stopped and thought for a moment. "No, it wouldn't work out with her."

"Why not? Look, I'm up for your long story. There's no-one here but me and the wildlife."

"And I always thought the wildlife around here was trouble. Let it go, Scott, I have."

"Have you?" asked Scott but Virgil had walked briskly on and Scott realised that he was going to get no further by pressing the subject that day.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_One week later_

Virgil laughed and it felt good. He realised that it had been a while since he had let rip with a genuine burst of amusement and he was pleased. Mind you, what wasn't funny about crawling about on the kitchen floor with Tin Tin trying to identify green fluff?

When Tin Tin wasn't working as Brains's assistant she liked to help her father with household chores. Kyrano had suggested that she might like to clean behind the industrial sized fridge. Although it was on wheels, Tin Tin looked around for one of the Tracy brothers to help her move it and Virgil had been the first one that she had come across.

Now they were kneeling on the bit of floor where the fridge had been, sweeping up but being distracted by the dust bunnies and gunk they found there.

"I knew that screwdriver was under here somewhere," said Virgil, pleased.

"No, don't touch it!" squealed Tin Tin. "It's got green stuff attached to it. Wipe it first."

"You think I should break out the haz. suits for us?" asked Virgil, deadpan.

"We'll be fine. Oh no, mind your knee. What _is_ that?"

The two peered at the gunk/fluff combo next to Virgil's knee. "Cookie," decided Virgil.

"No, no, more like some bit of fruit," replied Tin Tin.

"Since when have you seen fruit with chocolate chips in?"

"Those are not chocolate chips, they're…oh my God, they look like mouse droppings. You don't think there's a mouse in here do you?" asked Tin Tin.

"No, that's just who Scott blames his midnight snack attacks on."

"You're right!" Tin Tin started laughing. "I heard him the other day: 'That wasn't me, Grandma, we must have mice.'"

Virgil and Tin Tin went off into gales of laughter again.

"What are you two up to?"

The two looked around and saw Alan standing behind them. "Oh Alan," giggled Tin Tin, "it is horrible down here. Are these chocolate chips or mouse droppings?"

Alan watched Tin Tin bend over the mysterious gunk again to examine it. The sight of her fetching rear-end and the sound of her giggling made him feel quite attracted to her at that moment. "Let me look," he said, kneeling down on the floor next to her and elbowing Virgil out of the way. "It's okay, Virg, I'll help Tin Tin finish up here."

Virgil watched Alan huddle closer to Tin Tin and instantly felt like a gooseberry. He stood up and frowned at Alan's back. Then he left the kitchen, only the fact that the door swung both ways preventing him from slamming it.

He walked off down the hallway, his good humour vanished. Alan, bloody Alan. Didn't he realise how lucky he was? All the fun and excitement of International Rescue with the benefit of an on-site romantic interest. It just wasn't fair. Virgil had no idea what Alan and Tin Tin got up to on their walks across the island but he guessed it wasn't bird spotting.

Virgil felt tension build up in him as thoughts of Sophia rushed into his head. He missed her so much but he just couldn't see a practical way of rekindling a relationship with her. Not that he could now she was going out with some idiot called Mike.

Virgil had just wanted to have a chance with her. A chance with any woman, in fact. He only wanted to be able to develop a meaningful relationship but be in International Rescue at the same time. Why was it so difficult?

Virgil stopped in the hallway. He felt so angry at the unsolvable situation, unhappy about Sophia and jealous of Alan. The feelings overwhelmed him for a second and he lashed out, kicking his sneakered foot into the wall next to him.

In the instant he hit the wall the tension vanished and he sagged, feeling stupid at losing control. Then he looked at the wall and noted a hole surrounded by crumbling plaster.

"Oh crap." said Virgil.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Remind me again why we're having to fix the wall?" asked Scott.

He and Virgil were kneeling by the hole. Scott was mixing up fast-setting plaster and render and passing them to Virgil who was applying them to the wall as if sculpting a masterpiece.

"Oh, Brains needed equipment for the lab and I swung the trolley around the bend too quickly and…you know." Virgil hadn't even attempted to sound convincing so Scott merely gave him a look.

"And the real reason?"

Virgil sighed and sat back on his haunches, "I guess I'm not as over Sophia as I thought."

"And you took it out on the wall?"

"Probably better putting a dent in the wall than Alan."

"Eh?" queried Scott. "How did he get involved?"

"Forget it, it's not important. You know, it's not so much Sophia. That was great while it lasted. It's just got me thinking how impossible any sort of relationship with a female is. Do you remember Sophia, anyway?"

"No", replied Scott honestly.

"She was at Denver when I was. Remember I said that I used to play piano for the theatre group, sometimes, in rehearsals and performances?"

"Oh yeah."

"Well, one of the leading lights of the group was Sophia Westlake, usually main female lead. I used to really lust after her and she's probably the reason I helped out the theatre group so much. Anyway, I was just a piano geek to her and she never took much notice. A few months back I was in Sydney and I bumped into her. Well, our eyes met over a crowded subway platform. We had a coffee and she obviously decided that I wasn't a geek anymore and it went from there."

"I was right about the twinkle in your eye then?"

Virgil grinned at last. "You read me like a book. We had a really great time. She's smart, funny, unpredictable, beautiful and finally getting a sex life was a bonus, too."

Scott chuckled at that. "So what went wrong?"

"What do you think? International Rescue got in the way, of course. I mean, at first it didn't matter. She's actually a professional actress now, not big time but she's in regular work. And she models and does adverts and stuff. She's pretty busy so me not being around a lot didn't bother her. Then she started to want to hang out more with me in between jobs and she was mad at me when I kept disappearing. That's the hard bit."

"What to tell them, I know."

"I didn't feel I knew her well enough to tell her about International Rescue so I just hinted that we did secret work here and she took that to mean something for the Defense Department. But then she wanted to come over to the Island and stay for weekends….it just got complicated."

"I understand," mused Scott, "But Virg, we're entitled to a love life."

"Are we? Look, Sophia is…well…she's wonderful But she's an actress. She lives in a world full of people. She loves to be in the middle of a big group partying, having fun. Acting is her passion and so much socialising goes with that. I am not willing to leave International Rescue and live on the mainland right now. As I see it, for me and her to take the relationship further she would have to come and live here. Then I would have to tell her all about what we do, she would have to promise to keep it a secret and then she would have to live here in solitude. She might be able to keep up with the acting jobs but she wouldn't want to be stuck on the Island for any length of time and I'm not ready to leave." Virgil stuffed some more patch-up filler in the hole, less artistically this time.

Scott collected his thoughts. "I can see the problem."

"I think I need to be more like you and just love 'em and leave 'em. One or two nights and that's that."

Scott smiled slightly. "Yeah, okay, so maybe I do take the easy way out but I certainly think that one day I could have a wife and children and still be involved in International Rescue. I believe it can happen and it will."

"But you just put your finger on it. The wife bit. As far as I can see I can only have a relationship with a woman for over two weeks provided I want to marry her in the end. That way she can know everything and what she's taking on."

"But love doesn't work like that."

"Exactly. But how do I get to experience that middle bit of a relationship without compromising the security of International Rescue and my part in it?"

Scott thought. "Honestly? I don't know, Virg, I really don't."

"When we moved here I thought I'd just be sacrificing a few evenings in jazz bars and a bit of a social life, and possibly a bit of sanity by living with Alan again. But we end up sacrificing so much more."

"And you're beginning to think the sacrifices aren't worth it?" asked Scott.

"No, it's not that exactly. It's like monks."

"I beg your pardon?"

"They renounce their normal life, go and live in a monastery and give up possessions and women, to pray to save the souls of the rest of us sinners. And like us, they think the sacrifices are worth it. Sacrificing yourself to save humanity."

"Steady on, we've only saved 10 miners this month. It's a way to go before we save the whole of humanity," chuckled Scott.

But Virgil was lost in his thoughts and didn't laugh at Scott's words. Instead he spoke to himself as much as his brother. "But do you think monks ever dream of a night with a hot girl or just being able to spend a day without praying? And are they destined for eternal hell if they do?"

"You think too much. I also reckon you haven't met the right girl yet."

Virgil turned to Scott. "It's as easy as that? I just meet the right girl and it will all work out?"

"Virgil, it has to or we're all doomed to be in the same boat as you and you know what happens when we're all in a boat together. We argue about who's captain…."

"…we trip over each other and eventually someone throws Gordon overboard."

Scott laughed. "Exactly. I wish I had the right answers for you but I don't. We do good here and Mom always said that our actions determine what we get. It'll come good, just not with Sophia."

"Ah well, going out with her was a lifetime's ambition realised, anyway," Virgil replied off-handedly. "Thanks for the chat. You're right, I was brooding. Come on, let's finish up here."

Virgil started the painting, whistling a tune, leaving Scott wondering whether he really believed any of the platitudes that he had just imparted to his brother.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The trouble with avalanche rescues was that they were cold and wet. Of course, International Rescue had the best thermal gear to wear but it was bulky and got in the way of the job. And you sweated like a pig underneath. So in that sort of situation Virgil was always trying to decide whether to add or remove layers and judge how soon his hands would get too cold to be effective if he only wore his thinnest gloves.

Technically, the current rescue he was on was not too challenging. People under the snow showed up as nice hot-spots on the thermal imaging camera. Also, the avalanche had dumped a load of snow on a road high in the Swiss Alps so there was a good chance of finding people alive due to the air pockets in their cars. And it was a beautiful area and Virgil hoped to have time to take in the view at some point and remember it for future paintings.

He had already pulled a lady out of her car and to the safety and warmth of Two's pod. She was in her twenties and attractive but Virgil was more worried about the next car. Finally he was pulling out another woman, this one in her mid-thirties. She was being troublesome as she was resisting every effort by Virgil to get her to safety.

"My baby, my baby," she wailed in acute distress. Virgil tuned out her voice and eventually got her out of the snow onto a clear patch of road. She tried to get out of Virgil's grip and back towards her car.

"Stephanie, Stephanie!" she cried.

"I know!" said Virgil, trying to make himself heard. "Ma'am, you have to calm down, please. There's a baby in a car seat on the passenger side, right?"

"Yes! Stephanie, why didn't you help her first?"

"Ma'am, I couldn't reach her until I'd got you out. You have to trust me and stop fighting me so I can go back and get her."

Reason was starting to seep into the mother's head. "You'll go and get her?"

"Right away. Give me five minutes. If I haven't got her by then you can follow me and help, okay?"

"Five minutes?" asked the mother, stopping struggling so that Virgil was able to release her.

"Five minutes," repeated Virgil, knowing full well that he'd be out in two. "Time me!" he said as he ran back toward the avalanche site.

In one minute thirty Virgil was out of the avalanche cradling the baby. The mother tried to take her from him but he walked straight to the pod, knowing the mom would follow. Once they were inside Virgil wrapped the baby in a warm blanket and handed her to her mother.

The mother was now much calmer. Tears were streaming down her cheeks but she was cooing to Stephanie, soothing her child. She glanced back at Virgil and her stuttered thanks were so heartfelt that Virgil felt a lump in his throat.

The younger lady had been watching all this with interest. Now over her own shock she realised that her rescuer was not only brave and kind but damn handsome along with it. She put her hand on Virgil's arm.

"You're a real hero. How can we ever thank you? Look, let me give you my number and maybe we could meet up in Geneva sometime?"

Virgil smiled at her. She was very easy on the eye and he wouldn't mind a few hours in her company. Then he looked back at the mother and baby. That's what he'd signed up for: reuniting families and providing hope out of tragedy. He had given a mom a few more years with her child. What could compete with that?

"I'm sorry, but it's against International Rescue policy to take the personal numbers of people that we rescue. I'm just happy to be of service." The girl looked disappointed and Virgil felt a little sad himself but he knew where his priorities lay. Okay, so the next few years might be a bit thin on romance but the rewards he was getting from being a full-time member of International Rescue made up for that a hundred times over.

The End


End file.
